Former President Donald Trump again defended his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood,” insisting his remarks were not racist, and denying comparisons to rhetoric used by Adolf Hitler.
In an interview on Friday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination said he knows “nothing about Hitler.”
“I’m not a student of Hitler,” Trump told Hewitt. “I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood. He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way, it’s a very different kind of a statement.”
Trump’s initial comments came during a campaign rally last week in New Hampshire, where he said migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He later reiterated that statement on Truth Social. The comments immediately drew comparisons to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” in which the Nazi leader described “great cultures” that perished because “the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.”
In his interview with Hewitt, Trump claimed immigrants “from all over the world” are coming from prisons and “mental institutions and insane asylums,” providing no evidence of this claim.
“They’re terrorists,” he said. “Absolutely, that’s poisoning our country. That’s poisoning the blood of our country. And that’s what’s happening. And we’re not talking about a specific group. ... They’re coming from all over the world, and we have no idea who they are, where they are. They have people coming in, we don’t even know what the language is that they speak.”
“Jails and prisons are being emptied out into the United States,” he continued. “This is poisoning our country.”
Trump again insisted he’s never read “Mein Kampf,” a statement he also made in Iowa earlier this week.
“I never knew that Hitler said it, either, by the way,” Trump told Hewitt.
“So you intend no racist sentiment whatsoever when you say poisoning our blood,” Hewitt responded.
“Dear, no,” Trump said.
Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric has drawn strong rebuke from leaders on both sides of the aisle. Vice President Kamala Harris said the comments “rightly” drew comparisons to Hitler, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked his wife, Elaine Chao, while addressing the remarks.
“It strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao secretary of transportation,” McConnell told reporters.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is running against Trump in the GOP primary, called his rival “disgusting.”
“What he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and from the conflicts around the world,” Christie said during an interview with CNN. “And he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people from areas that don’t look like us.”
Trump, who holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary, has vowed to crack down on immigration if elected president again. He’s promised to carry out mass deportations, end birthright citizenship (despite it being guaranteed by the 14th Amendment), and implement ideological screenings “for all immigrants to the United States.”